1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing automatic access to a vehicle and for activating other vehicle mechanisms using biometrics.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automobile or other vehicle has various mechanisms that can be automatically activated. An existing remote control device attached to a key ring, for example, allows one to remotely lock and unlock automatic door and trunk locks and to automatically turn on the engine. As another example, a keypad mounted to the outside of a car door can be used to enter a password and thereby lock and unlock doors. Neither a remote control device or a keypad, however, is especially secure since a remote control device can be stolen as can the passcode to be entered on a keypad. It is desirable to provide a smart controller in a motor vehicle, enabling an intelligent vehicle providing a system and method for providing automatic access to a vehicle that is more secure, easy to use, and that cannot be misappropriated.
Some prior-art solutions activate vehicle functions, such as unlocking of doors, in response to biometrically identifying an authorized user near the vehicle. This, however, has the disadvantage that the user may only have intended to pass by his car at that time, and may not have wanted it to be unlocked. It is thus desirable to provide a smart controller in a motor vehicle which biometrically identifies authorized users and then performs vehicle actions only in response to some further user indication.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for activating automatic vehicle mechanisms, including the providing of automatic access to a vehicle, using a face identification.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a second means, in addition to the biometrics, for activating the automatic vehicle mechanisms, wherein the second means can be used to indicate which vehicle mechanism is to be activated and in what way it is to be activated and/or to provide a second layer of identification to confirm a face identification.
In accordance with the invention, a system and method is provided for activating a vehicle mechanism using biometrics. When an image of a face, having a set of unique biometric features, is captured in a field of view of a camera mounted to the vehicle, the set of unique biometric features of the captured image are compared to biometric information for a plurality of persons authorized to activate a vehicle mechanism to implicitly identify whether the detected face belongs to a person who is authorized to activate the vehicle mechanism. The vehicle mechanism is activated only if the implicit identification determines that the face belongs to one of the plurality of persons authorized to activate the vehicle mechanism. The system and method may further comprise, after implicitly identifying the face as belonging to one of the plurality of persons authorized to activate the vehicle mechanism and before activating the vehicle mechanism, detecting an explicit command comprising one of speech uttered by the implicitly identified authorized person and a gesture made by the implicitly identified authorized person, and comparing the detected explicit command to a set of explicit commands predefined by the implicitly identified authorized person to determine which vehicle mechanism to activate and how to activate it, if the vehicle mechanism is to be operated in multiple modes. The combination of implicit and explicit actions is a form of a xe2x80x9cmultimodalxe2x80x9d vehicle control.
The vehicle mechanism to be activated may be, for example, a vehicle lock that can be automatically controlled to move between an open position and a closed position, a motor that can be automatically adjusted to an xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d position and an xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d position, vehicle lights that can be automatically adjusted to an xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d position and an xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d position, or a vehicle alarm that can be automatically activated and deactivated.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.